Decentralization in education systems has been a central issue in recent education reforms, but prior evidence that supports the educational benefits of decentralization remains equivocal. This study investigates how the role of school autonomy on student performance may vary by a country's development level, teacher characteristics, and accountability. It analyzes a cross-country dataset obtained from the international PISA 2012 test that encompasses 64 countries. It examines two different areas of autonomy (autonomy over curriculum and assessment, and autonomy over resource allocation) and introduces interaction terms with the variables to measure how the effect of autonomy on student performance is affected by other elements in the system...